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112 fostered by the clergy, and manifested partly in flaming circulars against the French and their adherents or tools. It also caused a split among the conservatives into progressionists and retrogressionists, the latter joined by the devout, and by such men as Anievas, assistant government secretary, who now resigned, and later by Estrada, but the former readily winning over a host of republicans, owing to the liberal policy pursued with regard to church affairs, leniency in confiscation, and other matters.

The French policy toward the country had lately assumed a decided tone. The sequestration decrees of Forey, which had created wide-spread dissatisfaction, and induced the Juarists to issue even more severe retaliative decrees, and the clerical tendency of himself, as well as Saligny, which threatened also French interests, were not to the taste of Napoleon. The recall of both reached Mexico in August, tempered, especially in Forey 's case, with a semblance of preferment. The latter was replaced by General